The floodgates just opened

Circle's $18B IPO just changed everything.

If you thought Circle's IPO yesterday was just another company going public, you missed the real story.

It's the 3x pop and a $18B+ valuation on Day 1.

The numbers: IPO'd at $31. Orders exceeded shares 25:1. Hit $103. Got halted multiple times for volatility. Now trading at $80.

That's not retail FOMO. That's institutional capital that's been waiting 3 years for a clean crypto play.

Translation: The crypto infrastructure thesis just got validated in the most public way possible.

The $18B validation signal

The IPO market has been dead since 2021. Companies have been waiting. Watching. Holding back.

What they're saying: Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire called this "a significant and powerful milestone" for "the world to start upgrading and moving to the internet financial system."

He's right. But not for the reasons you think.

Anyone thinking this is just about Circle is missing the forest for the trees.

This isn't about one company going public. It's about validation.

The market just said crypto infrastructure is worth premium multiples.

And dozens of crypto companies have been waiting for exactly this moment.

Maja Vujinovic, investor and blockchain pioneer, said:

In 2016, I said blockchain wasn’t ready for prime time. Circle’s IPO proves we’ve arrived- real infrastructure enabling institutional capital. Upexi, Nakamoto, Circle these are no longer fringe bets, they’re capital formation tools.

Is this what crypto set out to be? Probably not. But it’s where the capital is going and that shapes everything.

The world will now take digital assets seriously as the next financial architecture.

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The big unlock for institutions

Circle isn’t just an IPO.

It’s the start of a new capital rotation. Away from tokens, into companies.

Circle gives investors:

• Exposure to a trillion-dollar problem (global payments, treasury infra, settlement rails)

• Regulatory clarity, audited balance sheets, and compliance

• All the efficiency of blockchain without holding speculative tokens

• A clean, scalable business model with direct correlation to crypto adoption

In other words: the benefits of blockchain, without the baggage.

This unlocks massive new capital that was never going to touch SOL, ETH, or AVAX directly.

But what about the Layer 1s?

Yes, USDC still relies on Ethereum, Solana, Base, and others to operate.

BUT:

• L1s are still commodity infrastructure.

• Value accrual most have not nailed yet.

Meanwhile, Circle takes the application-layer margin:

Compliance, fiat bridges, enterprise onboarding, KYC, UX, API integrations, and monetization.

So what?

Stablecoin infra players (Circle, Stripe, Worldpay + BVNK, Visa, etc.) are the new picks and shovels.

Layer 1s matter, but only to the extent they enable high-margin, enterprise-facing applications to operate at scale.

BTC remains the only digital asset with a macro thesis.

Everything else will get priced as infrastructure. We’ve seen this movie before in cloud, mobile and AI. The same is now happening in crypto.

And Circle is just the beginning.

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The Crypto IPO Tsunami

Here's what happens next:

Every crypto unicorn with IPO-ready financials just got their green light. The floodgates are about to open.

The immediate queue:

• Gemini confidentially prepares for an IPO, possibly as soon as this year

• Kraken is planning an initial public offering with no specific timeline yet

• Ripple is another big name that could go public soon

• CoinDesk owner and crypto exchange Bullish is once again considering an initial public offering as soon as this year

Asset manager Bitwise said that crypto technology firm Figure, crypto infrastructure firm Anchorage Digital, and blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis are all likely candidates for an IPO this year.

Be smart: M&A advisory firm Architect Partners expect the majority of IPOs to be filed in the second half of 2025 after written regulations and policies are clearly completed. This timeline just accelerated.

Circle didn't just go public, it opened the floodgates.

Every crypto company with IPO-ready financials just saw their path to Wall Street get clearer.

Take care,
Marc

For PRO Subscribers: What's Behind the IPO Numbers

Circle's $18B debut isn't just impressive. It's historically significant when you look at the wreckage of crypto IPOs since 2021.

The Crypto IPO Graveyard (2021-2024)

The carnage: